


And No One Noticed.

by TonyStark941



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Birthday Party, Hurt Tony, Hurt Tony Stark, Insecure Tony, Like seriously angsty, Oblivious Avengers, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Sad with a Happy Ending, The Author Regrets Nothing, Tony Angst, Tony Feels, Tony Has Issues, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Tony-centric, ignored tony, no regrets, tony stark deserves the world
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-09-18 18:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16999962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TonyStark941/pseuds/TonyStark941
Summary: "They were a perfect family. Like jigsaw pieces, they all slotted together in perfect synch. They were well matched.There was no space for Tony, and he knew that from the start. He knew that good things didn’t last for him, and if they did, he would probably self-destruct because he didn’t know how to deal with these feelings."___Angsty fic...be warned!Tony feels like he isn't good enough for the team but will they finally notice and make it right, or will they carry on in their oblivious ways?





	1. Chapter 1

There was time in Tony’s life where he was truly, genuinely happy. Where he was a free man that was finally able to escape the demons that lived inside of him. He could look back on moments from each day and smile, rather than feel a churning sensation in his gut and a need to grab something sharp. 

But those days were over now, and it felt like everyone hated him. That everyone was better than him, and as if he deserved to be treated like dirt because he was worthless and nothing anyone could say to him could change that. 

Everyday was the same. He would wake up, alone. Skip breakfast and go straight to the lab until late afternoon, where he would have a couple of snacks to make up for the hollow feeling in his stomach that seemed to always be  
there. He would then go back to his lab, work a bit on SI business, before returning to his bed. 

It was Hell, but, sometimes, Tony was just too numb to even care. It felt like everyone in the world hated him, and he had given up on fighting the voice in the back of his head. He wished to tell someone- anyone- how he felt,  
but every time he opened his mouth…it was like the words just wouldn’t come out. 

Tony really did try. 

He stood in the doorway of the communal living room where the Avengers all lay, sleeping. They looked like a perfect family from the way they all seemed so relaxed and at ease with one another. A movie was playing in the  
background. It was his favourite. Popcorn buckets littered the ground, and there were two 6 litre cola bottles discarded by Thor. 

They were a perfect family. Like jigsaw pieces, they all slotted together in perfect synch. They were well matched. 

 

There was no space for Tony, and he knew that from the start. He knew that good things didn’t last for him, and if they did, he would probably self-destruct because he didn’t know how to deal with these feelings. 

That’s why Rhodey left. And Pepper.

Tony lingered in the doorway for a few more seconds, and then disappeared to his bedroom 7 floors up. Alone. 

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

The next day, Tony was in his workshop. He was hammering a dent out of the iron man suit, and his ribs still hurt from the impact. He hadn’t got it checked out, obviously. The others deserved to be checked over properly, not  
him. 

“Sir, Dr Banner is requesting your presence in his lab.” JARVIS said, and Tony almost brightened with hope. Bruce actually wanted to talk to him, to be around him. 

He put down the hammer on the surface, and walked to Bruce’s lab. Through the glass doors, he could see Bruce bending over a machine, a scrawny but intelligent looking scientist standing next to him. 

Bruce smiled when he saw Tony. “Hey, me and Rick are testing out the gamma rays. Do you have the machine we made? He really wants to try it.”

Bruce and Rick looked at each other like they were best friends and Tony wanted to scream at them what about me because it was supposed to be him and Bruce doing this together, like they had built the machine together, like  
they had spent hours pouring over science journals trying to work out how to do it together. 

But Tony didn’t say that. Instead he nodded. “I’ll bring it to you.” He said quietly and walked out. 

No one commented when Dummy came back carrying the machine. 

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

There was an Avengers mission, and Tony was not called. He sat on his chair watching to live footage of the battle that JARVIS was showing him, the Iron Man suit on standby. He was ready to jump in it and help them at a  
moments notice. 

He watched and watched, and he wasn’t needed. The Avengers celebrated their victory without Tony. 

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

“Tony?” Steve said. “We haven’t seen you in a while…” The soldier stepped into Tony’s lab, his eyes examining the little pieces of tech lying around. 

“Hmm…” Tony murmured, his head still in the calculations. “I’m fine.” That was his default response, but Steve never asked. 

“Cool.” He said. “We’re having an Avengers movie night, want to join us?” He asked, and Tony perked up until he realised that he had said ‘the Avengers’ and ‘Tony’ like they were separate things. 

Tony shrugged. “I’m good.” He said, and he really wanted Steve to fight him, to tell him that the team needed him, but he didn’t say anything. 

Steve walked out, and Tony just sat there. 

He didn’t matter anymore. 

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

An Avengers alert blared through the tower, and Tony jumped out of his gaze and into his suit. Finally, finally, finally he was needed. They called him this time. 

He was the first on sight, and he saw a man standing there alone on a pavement. In his hands, he held a lighter, and a Stark bomb was by his side. 

Tony approached him slowly. “Think about all the innocent lives you’re putting in danger.” He said, trying to stop him. 

The man looked at him, and Tony felt like it was looking in the mirror. His eyes were filled with so much pain and hurt and sadness that Tony couldn’t look away. “They didn’t think of me.” He said, and lit the bomb, just as the  
Avengers came running on sight. 

The man suddenly dropped to the ground, his body shaking as blue bubbles foamed out of his mouth. Cyanide. Suicide. 

Tony disarmed the bomb, and then got shouted at for letting the bomb go off in the first place. All he could think about was the man. ‘They didn’t think about me’, he had said. 

Tony didn’t come out of his workshop for a week. 

~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~

It was Clint’s birthday, and Tony spent weeks working on it. Everything had to perfect. Clint had bad memories of his birthday, and Tony had to make that right. 

The day came, and Tony had put up decorations and confetti and there was a birthday meal with a huge cake in the middle. 

Everyone shouted “Surprise!” when Clint came in, and Tony couldn’t help but smile as Cint’s whole face lit up. 

“I though you guys forgot!” He said, his eyes wide. 

Natasha had laughed and Thor playfully nudged his shoulder. “How could we forget you?”

Clint made a speech thanking everyone: Natasha, Steve, Thor, Bruce. But what about him? What about Tony?

Tony left early, and no one noticed. 

No one noticed at all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!  
> I am so sorry for the huge delay- life just got so busy with exams and schoolwork, but I've managed to squeeze in the publication of this chapter.   
> I hope you all enjoy reading this!  
> TonyStark941 x

Tony had been in his lab since Clint’s birthday. It had been two weeks, and Tony’s food supply was dwindling, and his remaining water was now undrinkable. He knew he had to leave the workshop, but he couldn’t. 

He couldn’t bear to see them all live their lives like he didn’t matter, because- no matter how much he tried to not to care, Tony cared so much. Those 5 people sitting above him were his family, even if they didn’t feel the same   
way. 

It wasn’t surprising they hated him, but it still hurt. All of them were mismatched and broken in their way, just like Tony, so no one could blame him for desperately trying to fit in. 

Bruce had new science friends- he simply didn’t have time for a snarky engineer hanging around his labs, talking non-stop. Thor…Tony didn’t really know Thor too well, but he got the idea that he disliked him ever since he shot   
Loki in Germany. 

It wasn’t his fault that Loki was some maniac demi-god-slash-frost-giant with an identity crisis. Though, Tony felt more empathy for Loki now. He knew what it was like to live in someone else’s shadow, to never be anyone’s   
number one. Honestly, if Tony wasn’t so mentally scarred by Afghanistan, maybe he would have launched an attack like Loki’s. Maybe not though- running an entire planet seemed like hard work.

Natasha and Clint were a whole different matter. It wasn’t like they had ever actually been close. With them, Tony knew where he stood. It was comforting that Natasha had as much red on her ledger as he did, and he loved the   
pranks he sometimes did with Clint. They made it clear, though, that they weren’t friends, just acquaintances. It didn’t matter how hard Tony tried- they would never be friends. 

And then there was Steve. Dear, sweet Steve who would always have a smile and a cup of coffee ready for him in the mornings. Steve who would sit too close-to-be-friends next to Tony on the couch during movie nights. Steve   
who’s eyes would sometimes dart to Tony’s lips and then back up to his eyes, a blush rising on those beautiful cheekbones. 

Tony loved Steve, and it seemed Steve liked him back, but Tony knew that they wouldn’t ever be able to make it work. He would be not match for Steve with his brash, borderline-narcissistic and compulsive behaviour. Tony knew   
it was true, hell, even if it wasn’t there was no mistaking the words typed in black and white on his SHIELD profile. 

Tony looked down at his hands and saw them shaking. He should just quit the Avengers- he wasn’t a superhero. He was just a weak, arrogant man. Pepper herself had said it in a series of arguments that lead to their break up. 

“You’re not strong enough, Tony.” She had told him when he had woken up to another of his bad anxiety attacks. “Just quit while your ahead.” 

Tony had ignored her then, but now he wondered if he should go ahead and do it. It would be a relief…wouldn’t it? He would still house the Avengers, pay for all their meals and clothes and anything they wanted. He just wouldn’t   
be putting anymore lives in danger this way. The world would be safe from the Merchant of Death. The world would be safe from Tony Stark. 

He sighed and buried his face in his shoulders to stifle the thick sobs escaping. He had to man up. Be strong. Stark men were made of Iron. He couldn’t afford to be weak. He wiped away the tears and walked over to the bathroom,   
splashing his face with the ice-cold water. 

The grease and grime slipped off, the murky black oil slipping into the drain. When Tony looked in the mirror, it felt like he was seeing himself for the first time. There were no masks anymore, just the beaten shell of a man. His   
eyes were sad and dull, and his normally tan skin had taken a pallid, pale colour instead. His clothes didn’t fit as well as they should’ve, which shouldn’t have been surprising seeing as he hadn’t eaten as much as he should have   
for so long. 

He sighed to himself, ignoring JARVIS’ pleas to call someone, and half-dragged himself out of the workshop. It was time to face them, he supposed. The time had come to face them. 

He took the lift to the communal floor, practicing his smiles awkwardly in the bent metal of the lift. There was an imprint from Hulk’s fist in there, and Tony’s face looked oddly smushed and tiny in the reflection. 

The lift opened, and he walked out. This time, it was more of a confident saunter, rather than dragging his body around. His sore muscles cried in pain, but he ignored them. Fake it til you make it. That was his motto. Oh, and   
also Stark men are made of iron. That was probably his favourite, having been practically hammered into his head by dear old dad. 

The room was eerily empty for once, and Tony relaxed, no longer having to put up a front. He didn’t know why he bothered anyway- it wasn’t like anyone would care about how he truly felt. 

The coffee machine sat in the corner, dusty seeing as no one else but him used it. There was a cup of cold coffee next to it, and- judging by the weird lumpiness of what he assumed was milk- it had probably been there a while. 

It was strange, though. Tony didn’t recall ever making himself a cup of coffee, and he would certainly never leave it by the coffee machine. He would always drink it as straight as it was ready or take it down to the workshop if he   
had any projects. 

He shrugged, dumping the coffee in the sink. His stomach grumbled loudly, and he searched through the fridge to find some food to eat. A dizzy spell went through him suddenly, and he stumbled back against the worktop clumsily, his breathing fast and heavy. 

Well, Tony thought, it seemed he was hungrier than he thought. 

A dull throb made his way to him temple, but he quashed the feeling, focussing on unboxing the pitiful remains of some Thai takeaway. Just as he was plating up, a shrill sound echoed through the tower, making him wince. 

Of fucking course, it was the fucking Avengers alarm. There hadn’t been a fight since…well, since the Avengers hadn’t called him on that mission. Maybe they didn’t need him again, he though bitterly. No one needed him   
anymore. 

“JARVIS?” He called, surprised at the hoarse croakiness of his voice. He swallowed. “What’s the brief?”

“Sir, there has been an attack in Central Park. Captain Rogers is asking where you are.” JARVIS replied. 

Tony began to walk to the roof. They needed him. They needed him! “JARVIS, prep the suit.” He called running to the edge of the building, his heart hammering against his arc reactor. 

“Sir, is it really advisable to be doing this in your condition?” JARVIS asked, worry evident in his voice. 

“Hush, JARVIS.” Tony said, before jumping out the building, feeling the rush of the wind against his face and then he was falling and falling and falling and then-

The suit folded around him, protecting him, encasing him in its warmth and familiarity. He smiled to himself. “Full power to the thrusters.” He told JARVIS, whooping as the suit picked up speed. Tony muted the sound of JARVIS’   
concerns- he was fine, wasn’t he?

He landed on site just a few minutes after the Avengers. They were fighting off weird-looking humanoid looking..creatures? Robots? People? Tony blinked away the haze of exhaustion and flew to Steve’s side, quickly batting away   
one of the things. 

Steve looked up at that, staring at Tony in a way that made him feel like he was staring through the cold metal of the faceplate. Tony shivered, glad Steve couldn’t see him. 

“Where have you been?” he asked quietly. Tony watched silently as Steve thwacked a few more creatures, their slimy bodies hitting the ground with dull thuds. “Where have you been?” he asked again, and there was something in   
his eyes…Tony didn’t know what to do, what to say. 

Guilt welled up- he couldn’t do anything right, could he? He stayed with them and they hated him, he avoided them, they hated him. 

Tony opened his mouth to answer. He didn’t know what to say, what he would say. It was like his mind had just gone blank.   
He stared at Steve, firing his repulsors at each of the creatures until they were gone. A steady thwack of creatures being hit was all he could hear over the pounding in his ears. 

Tony looked around the destroyed remnants of Central Park. The creatures lay on the ground, their bodies curled on top of each other. Their sickly, green skin looking pale and pallid in the cold light of the sun. 

Steve was still staring at him. “Why?” he asked, taking a step closer. “Why did you have to hide away for so long?” 

Tony bent his head down in shame. “because I had to.” Steve didn’t say anything. “Because the Avengers are this amazing group of people, and I…I-I’m not. I’m not good enough.” 

“Why would you ever think that?” And Steve had the decency to look shocked. Why did he insist on ripping Tony apart like this?

“I-I’m not important. I’m not special. I’m not a God, or an assassin, or a super soldier. I don’t have a crazy big muscle-man living in my DNA. I can’t take out a room of spies with a hairclip and a rubber. I can’t shoot an arrow and   
hit a moving target. I can’t call thunder from the sky, or heal from broken bones within hours.” Tony rambled, suddenly feeling unnerved when he realised that the others has joined in the discussion. They were all listening   
intently, their eyes focussed on Tony in this intense way that made him want to curl up in a ball and cry and cry and cry. 

“Yet you can hack into the most secure buildings in a matter of seconds.” Bruce said. 

“And you can build these incredible things that help change the world and change lives.” Natahsa said. 

“You make us this amazing stuff, way better than SHIELD and ask us for nothing in return.” Clint added. 

A few tears fell down Tony’s cheeks. 

“You’re the one that stays up at stupidly early hours just to make sure that we aren’t struggling from a PTSD episode.” Steve said. 

“You’re the one that drinks herbal tea even though you hate because you know it calms me down.” Bruce said. 

“Anthony, you are one of the greatest men I know. You care for each of us so deeply but you don’t realise how much we love you.” Thor said. 

They nodded, eerily in sync. Tony shrugged, his limbs feeling heavy. “But you ignored me. You just kept ignoring me. All the fucking time.” A sob escaped. “You didn’t want to do anything with me, spend any time with me. How   
can you say you love me if you act like I don’t exist?” He asked, failing to keep the desperation out of his voice. 

Bruce looked so sad, and Steve was giving him the puppy eyes. “We thought you didn’t want to be around us.” Bruce said. “I wanted to show Rick our machine together, but you never cam back with the machine. I thought you   
didn’t want to do it.” 

“You didn’t call me on the mission.” Tony said. 

Steve looked at him, and there was anger and frustration in his eyes for once. “Because you had just been hospitalised for a fucking week!” he cried, and Tony almost blanched at the curse word. Steve blushed, but he didn’t look   
sorry. “Your safety will always come first. Always.”

Clint suddenly spoke. “And where were you at my speech, huh?” Tony shrugged, his eyes on the ground. “We had it all planned out. We were going to surprise you. To thank you for everything you had done but you just fucking   
vanished. Where the fuck did you go Tony. No, scratch that. Why the fuck did you go?” He exclaimed. 

“I thought you didn’t want me around…” he mumbled back, wincing at the squawk of frustration from Clint. “And you-“ he turned to Natasha. “You don’t even like me. You don’t have to pretend-“

Natasha suddenly went right up close to him, her eyes looking at his through the helmet. “People change, Tony. And I was wrong. So wrong. You are the strongest man I know.” 

“Oh.” Tony said. 

“Don’t disappear ever again, Tony. We were worried sick.” And all of them sounded their agreements. 

And if Fury found them hours later, curled up in the lounge with a movie playing, Tony sleeping in the middle of the protective group of Avengers, no one needed to know.

Except the entirety of twitter when the picture was posted under the ‘#earthmightiesthuggers’. 

-FIN-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone get my GotG reference??? Lol, I tried.


End file.
